Thursday 23rd February – Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson

No check-out time at a free site, but we’ve got planes to go and see at one of the World’s largest air and space museums!

We arrived at Pima Air and Space Museum about 1130am and were approached by a man with a gravity-defying moustache, keen to assist us in planning our day.  We failed at the first hurdle.  The main reason for our visit had been to do the tour of the boneyard, an area containing thousands of out of service planes that have been ‘mothballed’, so are ready for reuse as target drones or to be broken up for spares. However, all of today’s tickets were sold out.  We would need to get here well before 9am to get a seat.  We got general admission tickets instead and there was plenty to see for the rest of the day.

At this juncture, I will hand over to our plane expert to take you through the highlights of the day! Simon:

Ok, so there were quite a few planes that we’ve seen at several of the museums we’ve already visited, though each is different. For example this F4 Phantom (above) which, unlike the others we’d seen, was painted in the colours of the Thunderbird display team. That said, there were a few gems at this museum two of which I’d still never seen, but had wanted to for some time. Namely an SR71 Blackbird, and a Mig29 Fulcrum. I’ll attempt to briefly explain these aircraft…

Put simply the SR71 (below) was – and still is – the fastest, highest flying and the most secret plane ever flown operationally. Developed at Groom Lake, Nevada, otherwise known as Area 51, it was a CIA ‘Black Project’ until the military bought it and developed it into the worlds best spy plane. Nowadays, the CIA and military use satellites to spy on foreign powers, so the SR71 was retired early, though it still holds several aviation records. 

The Mig29 (right) is still in use with many air forces today, many of whom are considered a threat to western civilisation, ie: Russia and Iraq. In the late ‘80s, despite being one of Russia’s premier fighters, they were keen to show it off to ‘the west’ and so it flew displays at the Farnborough and Paris air shows and stunned everyone with its manoeuvrability. Sadly it’s never appeared at any of the air shows I’ve attended since. At the time, it was considered that only the US F15 and F16 fighters would be able to match it in a dogfight, and now the Mig29 has been bettered by the Russian SU27, maybe the west doesn’t have a match for this aircraft, possibly the F22 Raptor due to its stealth capabilities, but in a straight visual dogfight the smart money is still on the Russians…

We had seen an X15 earlier in our trip, at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. The X15 was one of the most specialist experimental planes to have ever existed. It was used to develop many of the control systems that were then used on the shuttle, as the aircraft would travel into space and then return to earth for a controlled landing… and take the speed record whilst doing so, hitting Mach 6.67 – over six times the speed of sound!

Further to this, the museum also displays ‘Air Force One’ from 1961 – 1965 (below). Those who know their history will realise that it was the aircraft that flew President Kennedy into Dallas, whereby he was then assassinated and it was then on this aircraft that President Johnson was sworn in as President as it flew out again…

There were several aircraft from all over the world, the UK was represented with a Harrier, a Jaguar -- painted in Desert Pink! - and a Jet Provost trainer. The Germans had sent a Tornado and there were other Migs on display, notably a Mig19 and Mig23, two more aircraft I’d not previously seen.  Finally, a ‘Super Guppy’ transport plane (below) topped off a very interesting collection.

Like most museum visits this trip, we were the last to leave – one member of museum staff shouting at me ‘We’re closing!’ as I was stood taking photographs outside... I thoroughly recommend this museum to any aviation enthusiast, just get there early!

I’ll pass you back to Struth… 

Randomly, we were invited to have our photograph taken on the moon whilst we were at PIMA

Having spent until closing exploring the 80 acre site we drove the short distance to our stop for the night – Crazy horse RV Park!  We had done over 11,000 steps so were both exhausted. Time for some Spanish learning and dinner before an early night to get back to Pima first thing in the morning.